Box-car-door opening and closing device and fastener



Dec. 22, 1925 v R. w. PACE Er AL BOX CAR DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING DEVICE AND FASTENER 'Filed June 21. 923 3 Sheets-Sheet L Dec. 22 I925- v R. w PACE ET AL BOX CAR DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING DEVICE AND FASTENER Filed June 21. 19:53 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 71'! lllllllll ism-=55:

Mi lrll Dec 22,

1,566,615 R. w: PACE El AL BOX CAR DQOR OPENING AND CLOSING DEVICE AND FASTENER Filed June 21. 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Dec. 22, 1925.

' UNITED STATE-s PATENT, oFFicE.

H noYw. PAGE AND J oK E. WILLETT, or Los ANeE Es, CALIFORNIA.

Box-c R-noon OPENING AND CLOSING DEVICE AND FASTENER.

Application filed June 21, 1923. Serial No. 646,816.

To (ZZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known thatwe, RoY V. PAG -and- JACK E. \VILLETT, citizens of the United 'States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles andState of Callfornia, have invented new and useful Im-' proveinents in BoX-Car-Door Opening and Closing Devices and Fasteners, of which the following isv a spec fication. 7

as are commonly provided .with rollers, 1

ordinarily secured at or near thetop thereof and adapted to engage a fixed track.

It being well known that the doors ofbox cars, and the like, are liable "to stick'in such manner that it'is often difficult or impossible to open or close the same without the use of tools, or without damage to such 3 doors or to adjacent parts, it is an objectof this invention to provide mechanical means, preferably comprising a crank on the door, and a rack on the car, this rack being adapted to be engaged by a pinion with which said crank is operatively connected, for moving said door in either direction; and, in a preferredembodiment of our invention, we prefer to make the crank relatively movable in such manner as to permit its use also as a hasp, to cooperate with the padlock, or the like, in retaining said door in its closed position; and our door may be releasably retained in any adjusted position.

Broadly, it is an object of this invention to provide a sliding door, or the like, with means comprising a hand operated motor thereon, for moving thesame, at will, in either direction and for locking the same in an adjusted position.

Other objects of our invention will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof and from the appended claims, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a door and door opening in connection with which our invention is employed, parts being broken away to show a'fixed track integral'wi th a supporting rail for said door. f

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing the essentialworking parts of our device uponan enlarged scale, additional parts being broken away or shown 1n section. f i

F 1g. 3 isa vertical section on line 33 of j Figure 2. Our present invention is a box car door opening and closing device and fastener, and

Fig. 4 isa side elevation showing llOWlJllG operating handle of our device may be used as a locking means. i v Fig. 5 may be regarded as'a section line 5 5 of Figure 4. V

Referring in detail to the parts of that specific embodiment of our invention which we have chosen for purposes of illustration,

.1 may be regarded asa body of a box car, orthe l ke, provided with a door2, adapted to close-an opening 3, and supported t usualineans such as rollers 4, mounted in brackets 5, and engaging a track 6, which may constitute" the up-turned. edge of a plate T, securedto theside of a car 1, or the like, by neans such as screws 8. The

rail or track 6 and the associated supporting elements inentionedqnay advantageously be protected by a housing 9, ofsheet metal-or the like, and this housing may advantageously be extended to include vertical housing element '10 and 11, which may be extended to and united with a bottom housingelement '12, which may also serve as a guide for the bottom of the door 2', all the,

mentioned housings being adaptedto cooperate in an exclusion of the weather'and a prevention of tampering. A

Coming now more particularly to our novel door operating means, at or near the point where a handle or a lock is commonly secured to a door, we prefer to secure, adacentthe lock edge 13 of our door, a

guard plate 14, whose lateral faces may be cut away to provide for hearing plates 15 and 15, both said guard plate 14: and said bearing plates 15, 15 being secured tothe door 2 by means such as the screws or bolts 16, 17,and the said bearing plates being adapted to support the ends of a short hori-.

zontal shaft 18, to which a worm gear 19 is shown as secured by a set screw 20, the

said worm gear being adapted to cooperate with a wormwheel 21, shown as revolving upon a substantially vertical'sha ft'22, this shaft being secured and supported by means such as a protecting and bearing sleeve 23, shown as secured to the actual edge of the door 2, all of the mentioned parts being vprotected by the guard plate 14 and the bearing plates 15, 15.

In order to utilize the rotative movement of the shaft 22 in imparting movement to the-door 2, any suitable means may be provided, but We prefer to employ, for this purpose, rack engaging means such as a pinion EA, suitably secured to the shaft 22,

it being ordinarily suflicient to employ such a pinion at the upper end only of said shaft,

1 and to adapt the same to cooperate with the rack fired upon the body of the car, or the like, in connection with. which our door operating means may be employed. For the purpose referred to, we find 1t advantageous to employ a rack adjacent to or integral with the rail 6, the rack 25, being shown as consisting, essentially, of-a suitable row of perforations in the re-curved edge of the plate 7, with which the rail 6 may be integral.

'Although any suitable means might be employed to impart movement to the Worm 19, and thereby to the door 2, we have preferred to employ, for this purpose, a crank '26, co-axial'with the short'horizontal shaft 18; and, in order to adaptthe said crank to serve also as a hasp, cooperating with a loop or'staple 27 secured to a fixed part such as the housing element 11, we may provide an aperture 28 in such crank, in order to permit the use of a padlock 29, or the like, in securing the door 2 in its adjusted position, the-crank 26 being shown as bent at 29 and 30, and as hingedly connected by a pivot 31 r to a plate 32, adapted to rotate with or upon the shaft 18.

' It being obvious that the door 2 must be completely close-d before it can be locked in the manner'just referred to, we find it important to provide means permitting the crank 26 to be rotated either with or lindep'endentlyofthe short shaft 18, and for this purpose we propose the use of a disc 33, shown as keyed to the said shaft and as provided with lugs 34;, adapted to be engaged at will by the crank 26; the construction being such that when the disc 33, and parts connected therewith, have been rotated sufliciently to close thedoor 2, the crank26 may then be swung upon the hinge pin 31,

out, of contact with the lugs 84:, and the plate 32 may then be rotated into the position shown in Figure 5, enabling the door to be locked in the manner there shown.

In connection with the foregoing, it will beunderstood that any usual or preferred type of supporting track and rollers may ily applied to existing ears, replacing the doors now 1n use thereon.

be used; and also that, although the worm 19 is adapted to impart motion to the worm wheel 21, the pitch relationships between the teeth of these last mentioned elements is such that the parts referred to constitute an irreversible transmission, it being practically impossible, by pressure or-blows, to move a door 2, provided with our operating means, from any adjusted position, so long as the worm 19' and'the wormwheel 21 re main, in mesh.

From the point of view just indicated, 9

our described organization may be referred to as comprising means for placing a car door in any desired position, and it may also be referred to as constituting or com prisingi'ineansforlocking a car door open at any desired point or to any desired "ex tent. It being frequently desirable to leave a car door slightly open, for purposes of "ventilation, whether or no'tfhuman beings are traveling therein ('as'may-be" necessary in the shipment of live stock, or the like), we deem it advantageous'to provide means, accessible from the inside of a car, to permit a disengagement of the worm wheel 21 from the wor1n 191; and, for this purpose, we may employ means such as a handle 36, secured to a short shaft37, it being ordinarily unnecessary to duplicate this handle may be. employed to cam the worm wheel" 21 out of engagement with the worm 19, the

shaft 22 being, in this case, provided with a squared collar or s'ection39, upon which the worm wheel 39 may slide, althoughincapable of rotation independently of said shaft.

It willbe obvious that, although cars may be originally provided, during the course of their construction, with doors and door oper 'ating means of the character herein described, our doors and associated parts, in cluding the frame elements 10 and 11,which may be screwed or bolted or otherwise se cured to any suitable opening, may be manufactured in standard sizes, and may be read Qon the outside of a car door,by whicha curved arm 38, secured to said short shaft,

be made. therein without departure from the spirit and scope of our invention, as the same is indicated aboveiand-in the following claims.

hat we claim is:

1. A sliding door construction, comprising in combination a plate having the main portion adapted to be secured to a structure, an upturned edge spaced from the main portion, having apertures therethrough forming a rack, the upper surfaces of the edge forming a track, a door having wheels operating on the track, a vertical shaft hav ing a pinion engaging the rack, a worm wheel mounted on the vertical shaft, a work gear mounted on a horizontal shaft transverse of the door and a crank loosely mounted on the end of the horizontal shaft and means to operatively connect the crank to the horizontal shaft to thereby operate the door.

2. A sliding door construction as claimed in claim 1, in which a plate is rotatable on the end of the horizontal shaft, the crank being hinged thereto and a disc mounted on the horizontal shaft surrounding the plate, and means to interengage the crank and the disc whereby the crank rotates the disc and hence the horizontal shaft.

3. A sliding door construction having in combination a rail, a rack formed integral therewith, wheels running on the rack, a

door connected to the wheels, a casing forming part of the door structure, a vertical shaft mounted therein having a pinion at the upper end and a gear at the lower end, a horizontal shaft extending across the casing having a driving gear to mesh with the gear on the vertical shaft, and a crank to operate the horizontal shaft, said crank being loosely mounted on the horizontal shaft and having operative means to form a rigid connection therewith.

4. A sliding door construction as claimed in claim 3 having in addition means within the said casing to disengage the gears.

5. A sliding door construction comprising a rail, a rack formed integral with the rail, wheels running on the rack, a door connected to the wheels, a casing on one edge of the door, a vertical shaft mounted in the the gear on the vertical shaft, and a handle .1 v

to operate the cam.

7 A sliding door constructlon comprising a rail,,a rack comprising a series of apertures formed integral with the rail, wheels running on the rail, a door connected to the wheels, a casing at the front edge of the door, a vertical shaft mounted in the casing having a pinion at the upper end and a worm gear at the lower end, a horizontal shaft through the casing having a driving worm gear to engage with the worm gear first mentioned, a crank to operate the horizontal shaft, a cam mounted in the casing engaging the gear on the vertical shaft, and a spring engaging the gear on the side opposite the cam. V

. 8. A sliding door construction as claimed in claim 7 in which a handle extending through the casing engages the cam to disengage the gear on the vertical shaft from the gear on the horizontal shaft.

9. A sliding door construction comprising a rail, a rack formed integral with the rail, wheels running on the rack, a door connected to the wheels, a shaftmounted in the front edge of the door, a pinion upon the shaft meshing with the rack, a counter-shaft mounted in the car door near its edge, a worm and gear connecting the counter-shaft to the first shaft, and acrank hingedly connected to the counter-shaft and serving as a handle for rotating the counter-shaft to move the door, said crank serving as a hasp for use in looking the door.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification.

ROY WV. PAGE. I JACK E. WILLETT. 

